CU professor raised our flood awareness

Gilbert White established what is now known as the Natural Hazards Center. (Daily Camera file photo)

More about Gilbert White

For more information about Gilbert White, his scientific achievements and his contributions to flood education, visit CU's web pages devoted to him at colorado.edu/hazards/gfw

After a long and productive life, Gilbert White died in 2006 at age 94. Seven years later, Boulder experienced an event the preeminent environmental scientist spent decades warning city officials and residents about -- a flood of unprecedented magnitude.

I was not alone at the Gilbert F. White Memorial on the Boulder Creek Path on a recent Sunday afternoon. A stream of individuals stopped to read the interpretive panel dedicated to White and his life's work. Boulder's flood has created heightened interest in the scholar many referred to as "the father of floodplain management."

A tall glass tower, designed by White's daughter, Mary Bayard White, a glass artist and Christian Muller, the designer of Boulder's Sister City Plaza, stands before the panel on the creek's bank with markers at the expected water levels for 50-year, 100-year, 500-year or "Big Thompson" floods.

Gilbert White was born in Hyde Park, Ill., in 1911. While studying at the University of Chicago, he became interested in his great-grandparents' Quaker faith. His father encouraged him to take two years of ROTC training so he might understand an opposing view while continuing to explore the pacifist religion, according to William Davis in "Glory Colorado! Volume II: A History of the University of Colorado, 1963-2000." White obliged, but he retained his dedication to peaceful solution to conflicts, eventually becoming a devout Quaker. As such, he was a conscientious objector in World War II.

The oft-repeated quote "Floods are 'acts of God' but flood losses are largely acts of man," originated in White's University of Chicago Ph.D. dissertation, "Human Adjustments to Floods," in 1942.

Before moving to Boulder, White, his wife and three children vacationed here in the summers, giving him the opportunity to observe Boulder Creek. During one of those visits in 1961, White gave a talk at Boulder's municipal building in which he said that a major flood would cause damage in the floodplain of Boulder Creek and the city was unprepared. Local officials paid attention.

After a stint as president of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago and became chairman of the Department of Geography. Then, in 1969, the University of Colorado hired him to direct the Institute of Behavioral Science. White moved his family to Boulder.

Shortly thereafter, he was appointed to the Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. Many more awards and honors would follow, including the Tyler Prize, perhaps the most prestigious environmental award.

White established CU's Natural Hazard's Research and Applications Information Center, now known as the Natural Hazards Center.

In 1983, White grabbed the attention of Boulder City Council members again. According to a Daily Camera report, White wrote a letter saying there was evidence that Boulder had, sometime in its past, experienced a flood 2.8 times greater than the flood of 1894.

With a kind and gentle manner, White kept after the town to restrict building in the Boulder Creek floodplain.

He never let up in his efforts to educate officials and citizens of Boulder on the imminent danger of a natural disaster here. In 1994, well into retirement, he produced Boulder Creek Flood Notebook, an online document created to study the next major flood in Boulder.

White deserves much credit for the "Climb to Safety" signage in Boulder Canyon, as well as warning systems and preventative measures in the city to minimize damage from a major flood.

September's historic flood could have been so much worse. Thank you, Gilbert White.

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